Update:
April 4, 2006 -- After eight years on Wilshire's Miracle Mile, The
Conga Room, L.A.'s, premiere Latin & World music venue, will move to
the LA Live! Entertainment complex in downtown Los Angeles.

The Conga Room
will open at LA Live! on Dec. 10, 2008 and will feature a
venue three times as large as its original space, with some 15,000 square
feet, able to accomodate 1,000 guests. in a live entertainment venue/dance
club, with onsite TV and radio broadcast capabilities. The new location
will also feature their Boca restaurant, featuring a Pan-Latin cuisine.

Located across
from (north of) the Staples
Center and the L.A. Convention Center, LA Live!is
a new entertainment complex which houses the Nokia Theatre,
Club Nokia, and will eventually contain a 1,200 room hotel, a five-story
ESPN building, restaurants, a 14-screen cineplex, and the Grammy
Museum. (See their official site at www.lalive.com
)

The Gipsy Kings
will be performing at The Conga Room on New Year’s Eve.

In anticipation
of its opening at LA Live! The Conga Room closed its doors on
Wilshire on May 31, 2006. Bear in mind that the article below
was written about the old Conga room on Wilshire, when it was open.

Arnold
& Bruce have Planet Hollywood,
Dan Aykroyd has The House of Blues,
Reba & Wynonna had Country Star,
and now some of Hollywood's top Latino stars have gotten together to help
create The Conga Room, a showcase for Latin music on L.A.'s Miracle
Mile.

Jimmy Smits
("NYPD Blue"), Jennifer Lopez
("Selena" & "The Wedding Planner"),
comedian Paul Rodriguez, Dodger's
third baseman Bobby Bonilla, and
legendary Salsa singer Tito Nieves
("I Like It Like That") are among the celebrity investors
who hope to take advantage of the recent Salsa craze at this sparkling
new dance club, lounge & restaurant.

Mixing modern decor with a flavor of Old Havana in
the 50's, the Conga Room features a 4,000-foot ballroom with a stage for
live Latin music, tables shaped like conga drums, three bars, colorful
murals, a VIP Room, and even B&W photos of Cuba. They wanted to create
an upscale club connected to the Latin culture.

The performer chosen to open the nightclub was none
other than the legendary Queen of Salsa, Celia Cruz(after Paul Rodriguez did the intros). Subsequent performers have included
Jose Feliciano, Tito Puente,
the Afro-Cuban jazz ensemble Conjunto Cespedes, and numerous
Latin dance bands.The big name acts are reserved for Thursday,
called "National Act Night" here.Friday, it's local salsa
bands, and Sunday is reserved for Latin jazz.

The
L.A. Times reported seeing Michael Douglas
and Minnie Driver dancing the night
away at the club a while back.

Iin early 1999, those on hand to celebrate the club's
first birthday included Maria Conchita Alonso,
Angela Bassett, Edward
James Olmos and Robert Townsend.
A month later, a salute to Latin Grammy winners brought out Enrique
Iglesias, Rickie Martin
and Andy Garcia.

Actress
Halle Berry says she likes to come
on Thursdays, when they have a different band each week. Actor Mario
Van Peebles ("Ali") also likes to salsa there.

In April of 1999, Roseanne
showed up, draped in a pink flamingo gown, cameras in tow, and
taped an installment of her talk show at the Conga Room, as owners Jimmy Smits,
Paul Rodriguez and Sheila E.
taught her to Salsa.

And
in July of 1999, a "Havana Nights" party attracted the likes
of Harry Belafonte, Samuel
Jackson, and Gregory Peck
to the Conga Room.

In September of 1999, they announced that singer/drummer
Sheila E. ("The Glamorous
Life") has become one of the celebrity owners of the Conga Room!

That same month saw celebs like Donny
Osmond, Natalie Cole
and Pee Wee Herman enjoying
the music at the club.

The club also offers Salsa dance lessons for the rest of us at 7 p.m. on
Thursdays (for $10). Ticket prices vary; tickets for Celia Cruise ranged
in price from $15 for general admission to $100 for special VIP tickets
which guarantee a good seat for the big shows.

In December 1999, Conga Room opened a new Latin fine-dining
restaurant next door to the club. It's
called La Boca del Conga Room (or Boca, for short), and features
Nuevo Latino cuisine such as ancho-rubbed pork tenderloin, saffron seafood
rice and grilled baby lamb chops. Meanwhile, the current Conga Cafe,
located above the club, will be remodeled and will feature casual food
such as sandwiches and empanadas.

The opening of La Boca brought out NYPD alums
Dennis Franz and Sharon Lawrence,
as well as Tony Curtis, Alan Thicke
and regular Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Getting
there: The Conga Room is located on the south side of Wilshire
Blvd., about half a mile east of the La Brea Tar Pits,a block west of La
Brea Avenue, between Detroit St. & Cloverdale Ave.

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described in the article above, and does not constitute an
endorsement of this or any other business. The photos of celebrities on
this page also do not constitute
endorsements by them of any kind, and are used by the author solely to
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